HP NewWave is yet another alternate desktop shell for Windows 3.1. What
is shown here is what they called the "working model". this is just a fancy
name for a scaled down freeware demo version of the full commercial HP
NewWave 4.

This is the splash screen that appears as the program starts.

This demo version of NewWave has the same features as the commercial
version except for the following that are not available:

Printing from the NewWave Desktop

NewWave Agent task editor interface design tool

Automatic bridges to more applications

Expanded On-line Help

DOS file Attach/Detach

Workgroup Library (Object Storage)

NewWave Control Panel

Object Finder

Password security

NewWave Text Note (ASCII text editor)

This is the NewWave desktop. Programs and documents appear as icons.
The desktop is actually in a window rather than on the Windows desktop
itself. The default position of the window leaves space to see minimized
application icons.

When you create a new object this window appears allowing you to select
from a list of document types.

The HP NewWave desktop supports folders that open in new windows. Files
can be dragged and dropped between folders. Each folder can be viewed as
large icons or as a list sorted by selected attributes. The "File Drawer"
is a place to store files that are not on the desktop. Files can be deleted
by dragging them to the "Waste Basket".

The desktop hides the actual file system from the user. What you see
on the desktop and in the folders are what NewWave calls "objects". These
objects can have names longer than the DOS 8.3 filename limitation. These
names are stored in a special database and the actual files on the hard
drive are given a truncated DOS short file name. These files are stored
on the hard drive in a special NewWave folder. The actual DOS name and
location of the file on the hard drive are not visible to the user unless
they look at the attributes for that file.

NewWave can store other attributes for each object.

The full version of HP NewWave can store "objects" on a network server
rather than just on the local hard drive.

The downside to this method of extending the functionality of the file
system is that external applications can not make use of any of this. For
example if a typical user were to try and locate the "New Card File" shown
above with another application they may be surprised and confused by the
fact that it is not actually stored in a folder called "File Drawer" and
that the actual file name is "newcardf".

NewWave also comes with a task scripting and scheduling utility called
the "agent". Its scripting can be used to automate a number of tasks in
a variety of external applications. These tasks can, if so desired, be
scheduled to run at specific times.